


Learning to Forgive

by Amaradex



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Hale Fire, Alternate Universe - Derek and Stiles Meet Differently, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Mentioned Kate Argent, Past Kate Argent/Derek Hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-02
Updated: 2014-12-02
Packaged: 2018-02-27 21:20:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2707175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amaradex/pseuds/Amaradex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek's family is only alive because of the guilty conscience of his Chemistry teacher. He doesn't think he can ever forgive himself for putting them all in danger, even if they all think he's foolish to blame himself. His mother and Alpha pushes him to volunteer as a means to redeem himself, but Derek doesn't see how working with kids can really make up for what he's done. Still, it does feel good to give back, and he thinks that maybe he can one day forgive himself.  Unless, of course, the past comes back to haunt him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as part of the Teen Wolf Big Bang and was thrilled to get [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2572508) fantastic fan-mix from the wonderful [monkey-pie](http://archiveofourown.org/users/monkey_pie/pseuds/monkey_pie). I very much recommend listening to it while reading as it fits the fic perfectly!
> 
> Thanks again for your wonderful work, monkey-pie!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just as a not before we get going - the underage warning is for the implied situation between Kate and Derek, not anything explicit. Also, although there is a hint to a potential relationship between Stiles and Derek, there is never any explicit sexual touching or feelings.

**ONE**

Derek sat silently on the bench, staring down at his clasped hands, not even noticing how white his knuckles were.  He had come so close to losing everything, so close to letting his stupid rage and angst cost him far more than the loss that had spurred his actions.  For all he knew, he still might lose his family over the fact that all of this was his fault.  None of them had spoken to him since the Sheriff had come to pick him up in the middle of the night and started saying things like “potential accomplice” and “inside information”.  Of course, the truth about where he’d been and what - and who - he’d been doing had all come out after that.  If his family had felt any shock, anger, or disappointment at learning that he’d been dating an Argent, Derek didn’t know.  As soon as the story had started to unfold, he’d looked down and focused all of his senses on himself, on the stench of guilt and the double-time beating of his heart.

Despite his fear, guilt, and anger, Derek couldn’t help being intensely grateful that at least he was here to be feeling those emotions, and at least his family were still there, even if they hated him after all this.  If it weren’t for Mr. Harris - and what a shock that was, that the notoriously hateful Chemistry teacher actually had a conscience - they would likely all be dead.  Kate had been found with so much wolfsbane in her possession that even the unaware officers were convinced it must be a drug or poison of some sort.  If she’d tossed it into the flames in front of windows and doors, any of them that managed to fight past it would still be killed by that much exposure.  And she’d known where all the exits from the house were, thanks to Derek.

Her one mistake had apparently been getting Adrian Harris to advise her on how exactly to get the best blaze started - one that would pass as accidental to a quick examination.  According to what he’d told police, she’d caught him at a bar when he was more than a little tipsy and seduced him into giving her the information.  It was only when he’d sobered up the next day that he realized that the questions she’d asked were suspiciously specific, and he’d immediately gone to the Sheriff’s department to report what he knew.  It was enough to merit a warrant, and the inspection of Kate’s apartment and truck were more than enough to have her arrested.  Her apparently mad rambling - mostly true, but certainly not something any of the Sheriff’s officers would believe - was part confession and part her own saviour.  She was going to be sent to a mental health institution rather than to prison, provided her lawyer and her family agreed.  Derek presumed they would - better that than her being in jail, after all.

Derek would rather she were dead than locked up in any sort of facility.  She was a hunter, and now he knew that she was a true one, deadly and merciless through and through.  She could and likely would find a way to get out, probably sooner rather than later.  When she did, Derek knew she would come back and try to finish the job, likely starting by taking him out.  At the moment, he was willing to accept that as his just punishment, but he couldn’t stand the thought that she would go on to murder the rest of his family.  He didn’t know how he could stop her, but he knew he had to, even if it meant killing her in front of all of the Sheriff’s department.  The only thing restraining him from ripping through the cell she was contained in was the thought that if he killed her, her family would almost certainly come after his in retribution.  There was no sense in condemning them to death in order to protect them from the possibility of it.  Still, something had to be done about Kate, and preferably before she managed to get herself free.

“Derek?” the Deputy that had sent him to sit on the bench called.  He was a little younger than Derek’s father, but he still carried himself with strength and authority that were quite familiar to Derek.  “We’re ready for you, son.”  Derek stood and followed the man silently, keeping his eyes on the floor for the most part, only flicking them up to ensure that he didn’t walk into anyone.  The Deputy led him into an interrogation room, one that was far more warm and friendly than the ones on TV, but unmistakably one nonetheless.  Derek took a seat on the side of the table facing the two-way mirror without prompting, clasping his hands on top of the table and staring at them once he was settled.  The Deputy took a seat opposite him and the Sheriff joined him after a few minutes.  The three of them sat in silence for a long while, nothing interrupting them but the ticking of the clock.

Finally, Derek had enough of the weight of guilt bearing down on him and the silent regard of the two men.

“If you’re going to arrest me, just do it,” he burst out with.  “I didn’t know what Kate was going to do, but I didn’t question her when she wanted to know all the details of our house.  I’m the one who got her blueprints and I’m the one that told her when we’d all be home.  If I hadn’t fallen for her, for her tricks, she probably would have just moved on after a while rather than fixing her sights on us.”  He shut his mouth forcibly, immediately regretting everything he’d said.  It was all true, of course, but how was he to know if it would help or harm his family.  It should show that all of them were innocent, that he was the only one who knew anything at all about Kate, but maybe they would be blamed for not raising him better, for not seeing that he was getting himself into trouble.

The Deputy and the Sheriff exchanged long looks, and the Sheriff stood and left the room, the door shutting the only sound in the room.  Derek watched the Deputy warily as the man sat back and waited patiently, his heart perfectly calm.  The man’s apparent willingness to wait forever wore away at Derek’s control until he felt like he was about explode with more words again.  The door opening was a welcome distraction, but when Derek looked towards it, he was puzzled to see blank space where he’d expected the Sheriff’s face.  He scanned down the opening between door and jamb until he caught sight of wide brown eyes in a pale face at a child’s height.

“Stiles?” the Deputy said, his voice warring between surprise and disappointment.  “You know that you’re not supposed to bother me while I’m working with someone.”  The disappointment seemed to be winning out and Derek watched the young boy pale and then flush.

“Sheriff O’Halloran asked me to bring you a message, Dad,” he said, a flicker of defiance in the otherwise meekly apologetic voice.  The boy slipped into the room and stumbled his way to the table, dropping a folded piece of paper in front of his father.  The Deputy picked it up and turned slightly so that the overhead light wouldn’t shine through and show the contents of the message.  His eyes scanned across the page once and then twice, and then he reached into his breast pocket for a pen and scribbled out a response.  He refolded the note and handed it to his son.

“Take this to the Sheriff and then go sit at my desk, OK Stiles?  And stay out of trouble and people’s way.”  His voice was stern, but there was a softness in his eyes that betrayed the love he had for his son.  Derek watched the boy as he scurried out of the room, curiosity and embarrassment combining to make him seem particularly interesting.  When he looked back at the Deputy, the man had one eyebrow raised at him, though he seemed more amused than offended.  Derek still flushed and ducked his head to look back down at the table top, generally uncomfortable with how the whole situation was proceeding.  He’d expected to be arrested immediately, not simply left to wait.  Certainly not to be the source of amusement for any of the officers.

It didn’t take long for the Sheriff to return after Stiles was sent on his way with his missive, and this time he entered the room with a soft smile on his lips.

“Well, your story’s been corroborated, though not without more nonsensical ranting on the part of that woman.  You didn’t have anything to do with this other than being her access to information she would have found anyway.  And she would have - she seems to be obsessed with killing your whole family.”  Derek gaped at the Sheriff’s words, not understanding how the man was coming to the conclusion that he was innocent of anything other than intent.  His stuttered protests went ignored or unheard, though, and after some formalities, he was returned to the bench to await someone coming to get him.  They’d said that his family had been waiting for him and had only left when assured that they would be contacted when a resolution was reached, but Derek couldn’t quite believe it.  They had to know by now that it was all his fault that they had been in danger, and that only a chance spark of decency had saved them.  Why would they ever want to put themselves out for his sake.  Still, he sat silently on the bench, once again staring at his hands, and let the Deputy make his call - or rather, calls, more than likely.  When all of his family refused to come for him, he could decide where to go from there.

He was beyond shocked when, fifteen minutes later, he was bookended by his sister and his mother.  Laura’s eyes were bright with tears, but Talia looked as unflappable as ever.  Derek couldn’t help but lean into her, and he felt a wash of warmth flow over him as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders, pulling him in towards her.  Laura nuzzled into his other side, her head tucked into the curve of his shoulder and neck, the sensation of her breaths telling him that she was scenting him, searching out and identifying his feelings.  He tried to rouse some sense of offense, but being surrounded by his Alpha and Alpha-to-be was too comforting, especially given the forgiveness and sympathy they were exuding towards him.  He still expected that they would realize they should be furious with him once their relief at being alive faded, but for now he was going to enjoy what time he had with them.

Just as they were leaving, his mother’s arm still looped around Derek, Stiles ran up to them and tugged gently on Derek’s sleeve.  When Derek turned to look at him, the boy was staring up at the three of them with wide eyes.  Derek gave him several long moments before coughing softly to wake him up.  Beside him, Talia smiled softly and Laura hid a wider grin behind her free hand.

“Oh!” Stiles blurted out, clearly startled.  His eyes got wider, but they turned to focus entirely on Derek.  “My Dad said he forgot to give you this.”  He held out an evidence bag containing Derek’s phone, wallet, and watch.  Derek reached out to take it, giving Stiles the best smile he could manage.  Stiles blinked up at him and then gave him a blinding smile in return before flushing slightly and rushing away.  Derek gazed after him, feeling a combination of bewilderment and amusement, then turned to look at his sister and mother.  Talia smiled kindly at him and tucked her arm into the crook of his.

“Come on then, son,” she said.  “Let’s get you home.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to put in a trigger warning for some self-destructive behaviour in this chapter. There's nothing violent, gory, or even illegal taking place, but Derek's actions may touch a nerve for some.

**TWO**

The week’s following Kate’s arrest saw Derek fall into a pattern that he felt was protecting both himself and his family.  He would get up as early as he could stand and head downstairs to the basement bathroom to shower in order to avoid waking the rest of the family.  Afterwards, he would make a large breakfast, storing the majority of it under covers for his family and eating the absolute minimum that he needed.  He’d be out of the house before anyone else was awake, walking all the way to school, with a few detours to help him kill some time.  He’d avoid the cafeteria at lunch, lest Laura or one of his cousins find him there.  One of the downsides to a big family, he supposed - Eliza and Ben were both old enough to be at high school, though thankfully they were a year younger and older, respectively, and thus weren’t in any of his classes.

He would either linger at the end of the day or try to get away a little early, depending on the day and who had after-school activities or clubs.  Derek had dropped basketball after Paige, and swimming certainly didn’t appeal to him after Kate.  The few other commitments he had previously been involved with were quickly and easily put aside to give him the flexibility he needed.  Once he was clear of the school property, he would wander or head straight home, again depending on who was likely to be home when he got there.  On evenings when his father and uncles weren’t all at work, Derek wandered the small downtown area of Beacon Hills, losing himself amongst the bustle and scents of the other shoppers.  When everyone was going to be gone, he would race home, prepare a meal from whatever had been left in the fridge and then lock himself in his room.

He presumed that his family appreciated his efforts to keep away from them given that they never seemed to make any effort to intercept him.  They were almost all capable of tracking him down, following him, finding him, or even breaking into his room if they chose to.  The fact that none of that was done - that the few times he had heard one of them awake and around in the morning or evenings when he was making quick use of the common areas of the house - meant to him that they had indeed come to blame him and were just grateful that him avoiding them meant that they didn’t have to avoid him, or even banish him from both the house and the pack.

Those misconceptions came tumbling down one afternoon, nearly a full month after the whole mess was resolved in the Sheriff’s office, when he came home to find the entirety of the family sitting in the living room, staring intently at him as he walked through the door.  He cursed himself internally - he’d been so focused on rushing home to get dinner made before anyone was home that he hadn’t listened for heartbeats to check that there wasn’t anyone home already.  It was one of the days that everyone was supposedly busy until at least 6PM, so he hadn’t thought it was necessary to check.  He turned to leave, knowing by the sounds and smells of them that he wasn’t going to like what was about to come, only to find his mother’s Emissary dusting the last bits of Mountain Ash off his fingers, having completed what appeared to be a full circle of it around the house.

“Derek, have a seat.”  His mother’s voice was commanding, though she didn’t impose her will upon him to force the issue.  He dropped himself into the chair they had clearly left open for him.  It didn’t escape his notice that they were all in seats facing his, a small divide of open floor keeping him separate from them.  He found that he wasn’t sure whether he hoped it meant that they were finally ready to banish him or that they were staging a rather elaborate intervention.

“You’ve been avoiding us,” Talia said bluntly once everyone was settled.  Derek nodded, unsure of how else to respond.  He couldn’t get a read on any one person’s feelings, the sounds of their hearts and the scents of their emotions overlapping and blending until there was no way to distinguish them from one another.  It was a common tactic used by werewolves to confuse other packs when they met in person.  It made Derek feel very removed from the pack and the family.

“Yes,” he finally admitted out loud when she didn’t say anything further.  “I thought it was for the best.”  He shrank back when his mother’s eyes flashed red for a moment before she sat back and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“And what exactly made you think that?” she asked, her frustration evident in her voice, even if he couldn’t pick it out in the muddle of scents.

“I nearly got you all killed!” he burst out, feeling a rush of guilt.  “I thought you wouldn’t want me around, that seeing me just reminded you all of how stupid I was.  And I thought that if I avoided you, I couldn’t put you in danger again.”  He stopped himself forcibly with a hand over his mouth, breathing heavily.  There was a wash of sadness through the group’s scent, strong enough that it had to be coming from more than one of them and likely from more than half.  That bolstered him a little - of the fourteen of them sitting there and watching him, if even eight of them cared enough about him to be saddened by his worries, then he might not have ruined everything quite as much as he had feared.  They might even come to forgive him in time, though he knew he would never entirely forgive himself.

“This was not all your fault,” Talia said, leaning forward in her chair enough to lay one hand on his knee.  Almost immediately his breathing eased slightly, and he was able to focus on her, feel her support and reassurance flowing through the pack bond.

“But I talked to her, told her everything about us...” he said, his voice hoarse and barely above a whisper.

“No!” Laura interjected before Talia sent her a sharp look that had her sinking back into her seat.  Eliza and Cora, who were bracketing her, leaned in towards her, trapping her where she was, blithely ignoring her dirty look.

“You did,” Talia told him, once Laura was appropriately subdued.  Derek felt his eyes begin to tear and he dropped his gaze to the hand still on his knee.  “But... it was not your responsibility to protect us, and she was far more practiced at trickery than you are at detecting it.  Yes, you should have not been so trusting and willing to share our secrets, and you probably should have sensed that something was wrong, but you were not the one who planned this or even aware that it was being planned.  The Sheriff confirmed that for us, and your actions since then have only made that more obvious.”

“I should have known better,” Derek whined, torn inside between wanting to be forgiven and feeling like he should never be trusted again.

“We should have taught you better,” Talia countered, her voice implacable.  “We should have been teaching you all about the dangers we face not just as abstract concepts, but as very real things that we have faced, and obviously will be facing again.  We will do so now to ensure that this never happens again.  And we will also be getting in contact with other packs to warn them that there are once again hunters who are willing to ignore their supposed Code.”  She flicked a gaze to Peter and Matt, an order in her look that didn’t need words to be conveyed.  Both of Derek’s uncles nodded at her in response and Laura flicked her eyes between them and Talia, though she remained silent.

“As it is,” Talia said, returning her attention to Derek, “you need to talk out your feelings with someone.who is qualified to help you deal with your guilt.  Doctor Deaton’s sister has a degree in psychology and she knows about us.  You will be seeing her twice a week until she decides that you are done.”  Derek opened his mouth to protest but quelled at his mother’s glare.  “And as you obviously feel the need to make up for what has happened, I will be finding you a volunteer opportunity to get some of that out.”  Derek nodded at another sharp glance from Talia.

“What about the rest of us?” Laura burst out, leaning forward despite Cora and Eliza’s best efforts to keep her caged between them.

“The rest of you will be supporting Derek and ensuring that he does not fall back into the pattern of the last few weeks.  You will also be participating in some training that Peter and I will be putting together.  And I will not be hearing any complaining about it.  Any of you could have been in Derek’s place and I doubt that any of you would have handled it much better.”  Laura frowned and Cora bit her lip, but none of them argued with the Alpha considering her tone of voice.  The older members of the pack even nodded in agreement, likely presuming that they would not be required to attend the training.

“Are we done?” Derek asked once it was clear that Talia wasn’t planning on saying anything else.  He earned a sharp look, but his mother seemed to read his discomfort, because she nodded and gestured to Deaton, who stood and broke the ash line with a quick gesture of his hand.  Despite the temptation to bolt, Derek held himself still until Talia stood and dismissed them all.  He contemplated heading out for a run, but Laura and Cora quickly surrounded him and ushered him upstairs to their shared games room.  It was big enough for all the young members of the pack to sprawl out and watch movies, play board games, or tussle when the pull of the moon got too much.

“I’d kind of like to be alone,” Derek tried telling them, but Laura just pushed him down onto the couch and Cora draped herself over his legs.

“Not happening, little brother,” Laura said, sprawling behind him.  “You’re stuck with us when you’re not at school, in counseling, or doing your community service.  We’re not letting you decide that you’re just going to abandon the pack again.”

“I didn’t abandon the pack!” Derek exclaimed, feeling a flare of impatience with his sister.

“You tried,” Laura told him.  “And we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”


	3. Chapter 3

**THREE**

His mother presented Derek with three options for his volunteer work - either spend two afternoons a week in the library, spend those same afternoons at the after-school program at the elementary school, or help out with Meals on Wheels.  He’d initially thought to choose the latter option, but his grandmother talked him out of it with a few tales of the sorts of people he might be encountering - or rather, the sorts of smells that were normally associated with them.  He chose to help out at the elementary school instead, reasoning that looking after children couldn’t be particularly hard, and he might get the chance to sit down and do some of his homework while they were occupied with an activity.  His mother accepted his choice with nothing more than a nod, and brought him papers the very next day to get started on setting him up as a volunteer.

It took a couple of weeks for all the paperwork to be handled, despite the Deputy that had interrogated him helping to expedite the background check.  Derek didn’t mind - as much as he wanted to absolve himself of some of his guilt by helping out, he was enjoying reconnecting with his siblings and cousins, and he wanted just a few more free afternoons to spend with them.  Still, when the head of the program called the house to let him know that he had been approved and could start volunteering the following week, his feelings were overwhelmingly ones of relief, tinged only slightly by sadness.  He went readily with his mother when she drove him to the required day of training, and he gave the tasks he was assigned in it his honest effort, not even talking back as he had been wont to do when he was a child himself.

In truth, he felt much older than his sixteen years, as though the events of the past few months had aged him physically as well as emotionally and psychologically.  He’d been heartbroken after having to kill Paige, but his mother had talked him through his feelings and had eventually convinced him that none of it had been his fault.  She didn’t know what had caused Ennis to think that biting Paige was a good idea, but it certainly hadn’t been Derek, who had never seen the Alpha  from any less than a room’s-width distance, never mind spoken to him.  Derek was still understandably upset about the fact that he had been forced to choose between allowing her to suffer and taking her life, even after all of his far worse decisions.  In a way, he felt like this volunteer work might be restitution for what he’d done to her as much as it was for trusting Kate.

His first shift, he was scheduled to work with the youngest children, the kindergarteners and first and second graders.  He did his best to get along with them, and he did manage to avoid making any of them outright cry, but they all skirted him warily and would go unhappily silent whenever he approached them.  He ended up spending the second half of his four hours sitting at a too-small table in the corner and doing his homework, while the woman who was paid to deal with the children led them in activities.  She gave him a sympathetic look once the last child was picked up by his father, and reassured him that he could be useful with one of the older groups.

He was indeed assigned to the group of fifth and sixth graders when he showed up for his next assigned day, much to his relief.  He was surprised to see the child from the Sheriff’s station when he entered into the room, the boy completely focused on the page that he and the shaggy-haired boy beside him were working on.  Derek stood in the doorway and blinked at him for a long moment, but when the boy didn’t look up, he shook himself out of his stupor and went over to introduce himself to the man standing at the front of the room.  He was mildly surprised at the warm welcome he received.

That surprise only lasted as long as the kids remained working on what seemed to be an art project.  The Deputy’s son - Derek couldn’t remember his name, something ridiculous - and his friend were the first ones done, and when the kid looked up, his eyes latched onto Derek and lit up.  Clearly, he remember Derek as well, judging by the way he jumped up and ran over to tug on the older boy’s sleeve.  Derek shot a glance at the paid supervisor - was he even a teacher, he wondered - and when he didn’t receive any discouragement, he bent down to be at the kid’s level.

“Hey!  Do you remember me?”  Derek debated his answer briefly before smiling at the boy.

“I do, but I don’t think you ever told me your name,” he responded.  The kid blinked wildly for a long second and then gave him a toothy grin.

“I’m Stiles.  Stiles Stilinski.”  Derek looked at him suspiciously, sure that couldn’t really be his name, even if it did stir some memories of the deputy calling him something vaguely like that.  “Not my legal first name,” Stiles said quickly, clearly interpreting Derek’s look more or less correctly.  “But nobody can pronounce that so as far as anyone other than my family is concerned, I’m just Stiles.”

“Fair enough,” Derek told him, smiling a little at the way the kid practically babbled over himself.  He seemed a little young and small to be in with the fifth and sixth grade kids, to be honest, but maybe he was just a late bloomer.  Derek knew that wasn’t the sort of thing he should be asking the kids he was at least nominally looking after, so he distracted both himself and Stiles by asking what the next activity for the group should be.

Mr. Panopolous, who turned out to be the sixth grade teacher as well as the after-school program monitor, was relatively laid-back about what the kids did, and so over the next few weeks Derek found himself dragged into taking Stiles and whichever of the kids were feeling particularly active out onto the field behind the school to let them wear themselves out, while Mr. Panopolous stayed inside with the quieter kids.  The number of kids in Derek’s group varied every day, but Stiles was a constant fixture, always excitable and high-energy, even on the occasional days when dark-ringed eyes said that he had slept poorly.  Every once in a while, Derek thought he caught flashes of deep sorrow on Stiles’ face, but they never lasted long enough for Derek to actually assess them.

Winter faded away into the softening breezes and fresh, rain- and flower-scented air of spring with Derek still splitting his afternoons between counseling and volunteering at the elementary school.  Talking with Miss Morrell was beginning to help, but Derek found that being around Stiles and the rest of the after-school kids was actually more therapeutic than talking out his feelings.  Miss Morrell had managed to coerce that detail out of him in one session, and rather than being upset like Derek had feared had actually laughed and looked delighted about it.  She told him that while it didn’t get him out of his sessions, the fact that something was helping him let himself heal was good.  She even talked to his mother and had his Monday sessions replaced with another afternoon volunteering.

In April, Cora managed to convince Talia to let her stay for the after-school program, though they both hid it from Derek until he walked into the room to find his sister sitting between Stiles and Scott, showing them how to make a more accurate paper plane.  It turned out that she was in their class, and knew all sorts of things about them, like the fact that they were both only children with single parents, that they wanted their parents to date so they could become actual brothers, and that Scott had asthma and Stiles ADHD and so they had originally bonded over being ostracized for being different.

She bombarded Derek with all that information and more over their late dinner after her first day of program attendance, only shutting up when he finally growled loudly enough that their mother got involved.  He more or less knew why Cora had decided to join the after-school program, but he didn’t understand why she insisted on him learning all those things about Stiles and Scott.  Sure, they were probably his favourites from the program, but that was just because they were tolerable in comparison to the way some of the other kids got when they had bad days.  Derek could hardly believe that some of them were only four to six years younger than him and were the same age as Cora when so many of them acted like spoiled toddlers or even big babies.

His hopes that she would get bored of checking up on him faded as the winter faded into spring.  With the return of warmer temperatures, Derek’s group grew, and he found himself actually organizing outdoor activities rather than just letting the kids run around just so that he could keep track of all of them.  He enjoyed it more than he had expected to - there was a simple kind of joy in putting effort into a structure that led to fun.  After a few weeks, the kids began to request favourite games and activities, which Derek would go home, research, and then usually indulge them in the next time he saw them.

The remnants of the school year passed Derek by in this fashion, and he only really marked the passage of time by the amount of class time spent on exam preparation steadily growing.  His thoughts of needing to punish himself and protect his family became less common and less serious, something that Miss Morrell was quite pleased with when he told her about it.  His family was starting to relax around him, and his sisters began to let him have some evenings to himself, though he often chose to spend that time in their games room, curled up on the couch and watching whatever the others had chosen to put on.  The only thing that really worried him was what he was going to do once school was over for the summer.


	4. Chapter 4

**FOUR**

Two weeks before the elementary school let out for the summer, Deputy Stilinski showed up to pick Stiles and Scott up and pulled Derek aside.  Derek immediately tucked his hands behind his back, steadfastly pushing the urge to grow claws to protect himself down.  He knew that he wasn’t in any danger from the Deputy, even if he had done something wrong - and he was fairly certain that he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“I have a favour to ask of you,” the Deputy started, and Derek breathed deeply in relief, unclenching his hands but keeping them behind his back.  The adrenaline from his fear was still coursing through him, and the Deputy was too observant to even chance a slight flicker of claws.  He nodded at the Deputy, doing his best to keep his face completely open and innocent.

“Both myself and Melissa McCall work a lot of strange shifts, and as mature as Stiles and Scott are, they’re still kids and they have a habit of getting themselves into mischief.  We need someone to watch them for the summer.  Usually, we send them to a friend’s daycare, but they’re getting a bit old for her, and she doesn’t do evenings.  We were wondering if you would be willing to watch them for the summer.  We’d pay you, of course.”  The Deputy came to a stop, and Derek stared at him with wide eyes.  His rambling hadn’t been anything compared to Stiles, but it was a lot to take in.

“I’m only sixteen,” he offered hesitantly.  The Deputy waved a hand in dismissal.

“They’re old enough that you don’t have to do much caring for them, just make sure they don’t get into trouble and keep them from getting too bored.  They already listen to and like you.  That’s always been most of the problem with any babysitters we’ve hired before.”

“I’ll have to check with my mother if that’s OK,” Derek warned.  “And I would need Tuesdays from 4 to 6 pm off.”  Deputy Stilinski waved his hand again, less dismissively but still encompassing and accepting everything Derek had said.

“Of course.  Between us, we should be able to make sure that one of us gets Tuesday evenings off.  Why don’t you talk to your mom about this and if she says it’s OK, let me know and we can talk about your pay and what our expectations are.  And if your mom has any questions, tell her she can feel free to call me about them.”  He pulled a card out of his shirt pocket, flipping it over to write another number on the back before handing it to Derek.  Derek took it with the slightest bit of reluctance, tucking it into his jeans pocket then surreptitiously wiping his hand before taking the hand that the Deputy had offered him.

Stiles cannonballing into his father interrupted the awkward moment, and Derek gladly backed off, waving at Stiles and Scott as they called goodbyes to him and followed the Deputy out to his car.  Mr. Panopolous let him go shortly thereafter, and Derek hurried to call Laura for a ride, hoping that she hadn’t left the high school yet.  He didn’t want to be walking through the woods with his mind in such a muddle.  Laura gave him a curious look when she picked him up, but she didn’t ask him any questions, simply let the drive pass in silence.  Derek thanked her when they reached home, but dodged her questioning look and open mouth and ran upstairs to his room to think.

He didn’t know why he was so discombobulated by the Deputy’s request - it made sense that two single parents with shift-based jobs would need care for their kids, and that two friends would be happy to combine that need to cheapen the cost.  It also made sense that they would trust the young man that volunteered to watch their kids after school, especially as their kids already seemed to like him.  No, what flummoxed Derek was that Deputy Stilinski had seen what he’d nearly done, had seen his complete and utter foolishness in action, and still didn’t seem to hesitate to ask Derek to care for his son.  That kind of trust terrified Derek as much as it warmed him through, and he wasn’t sure whether he should repay it by agreeing to care for Scott and Stiles or by refusing to.

He finally decided to ask his mother for her advice after dinner, trusting that she would know best what to do.  WIth his decision made, he was able to relax slightly, and focus on completing his studying for his last exam.  Laura knocked on his door just as he finished, and he called out to her to let her know it was alright to come in.

“You ready to talk?” she asked, leaning in the doorway rather than actually coming into his room.  He smiled at her and hopped up to sit on his bed, patting the space next to him.  Her face relaxed and she took the invitation, sitting cross-legged and leaning back against the wall so she could be comfortable and still face him.

“Yeah,” he said, leaning back a bit himself.  “Thanks for giving me space earlier.  I was... a little worked up.”  She snorted indelicately and he glared at her.

“So what’s up?” she prodded, nudging him with her foot.

“Deputy Stilinski wants me to babysit his son and Scott McCall over the summer.  I know it sounds silly to let something like that upset me, but I never would have expected him to trust me with something like that after seeing everything that happened.  Even if I have been watching them a few afternoons a week for the past few months.”  He paused, drawing in a deep breath to calm himself again.  He still wasn’t entirely comfortable with the knowledge that he was being forgiven so easily by a law enforcement officer, even though he knew from all of his meetings with Miss Morrell that there was very little to be forgiven.

Laura drew him close and wrapped an arm around him, letting him know without words that even if she couldn’t understand why he was so upset, she was willing to let him be.  He pushed his face into her shoulder and drew in a few breaths, letting the scent of love and pack and family fill him until he felt a little more certain about himself.  As soon as she felt him pulling back, she let go, resuming her previous position leaning against the wall.

“You’re planning to talk to Mom about it?” she asked him.  He nodded and she gave him an encouraging smile before settling down into comfortable silence again.  Within moments, her cellphone beeped at her and she winced before pulling it out of her pocket and flipping it open.

“Sorry Derek.  Apparently Uncle Matt needs my help with something.  You going to be OK?”  Her brow was furrowed with concern but she kept her tone light and not accusatory.  Derek tried not to bristle at feeling like his very sanity was being questioned, reminding himself that his sister had seen how destructive he could be to himself.  He waved her off with his best smile, and although she gave him one more concerned look, she left to find their uncle.

He stayed in his room for a little while longer, gathering his courage and his thoughts, then he descended, ears and nose open for signs of his mother.  He found her in the family office, typing intently away at the keyboard.  She held up one hand as soon as he entered, the fingers of the other hand still drumming away, then dropped it back down once he took a seat.  It took a few moments, but she finally clicked twice and then turned to face him fully.

“What can I help you with, Derek?” she asked formally, her face telling him that in this, she would be Alpha first and mother second.

“Deputy Stilinski approached me at the after school program today,” he said, tilting his head to the side slightly to bare his throat.  “He asked that I watch his son and Scott McCall for the summer.”

“And you don’t want to?” she asked, her eyes sharpening.

“I didn’t want to presume to know the correct answer,” he told her softly.  “I am willing to do so, but there may be the need for me to work on a full moon night.  I also worry that Stiles and Scott are already too attached to me and this might encourage that.”  Talia regarded him steadily through his recitation, nodding solemnly once he was done.

“Those are reasonable concerns to have, and I’m glad to see you are thinking this through.  I think you should do this if you want to.  You have been able to handle full moons for the past year, and although it will undoubtedly be difficult, you can do it.  As for the children becoming attached to you - they are indeed still children, and such attachments come and go at their age.  They may follow you around like ducklings for a while, but once you are no longer in frequent contact with them, they will soon forget you.”

Derek bristled a little at her dismissiveness towards his concerns, but reminded himself that this was the truth, and being given to him as though he was nothing more than a Beta in Talia’s pack, rather than as her son.  Still, he couldn’t help but feel as though she was doing both Stiles and Scott a bit of a disservice to think that they would abandon any friendship they felt towards him just because he wasn’t around often.  He’d heard, from Cora and from the boys, about the length and strength of their friendship, and some of the story behind Stiles’ enduring love for and chase after a girl in his class.  Neither of them seemed to be the sort his mother thought they were.  Aside from that point, however, she was right, and he resolved to speak to the Deputy the next time he saw him and let the man know he’d be happy to take the job.


	5. Chapter 5

**FIVE**

Because the elementary school let out for the summer after the high school did, Derek had a couple of weeks mostly to himself, excepting the continuing of his therapy sessions and his volunteering.  Someone had obviously told Stiles and Scott about him babysitting them for the summer, as a few days after he’d talked to the Deputy they crowded around him to chatter about their grandiose plans for the summer.  He indulged them for a while, letting them discuss away and conceding to some of their less foolish or dangerous plans, knowing he would be held to his promises as he made them.  The bright, cheery picture they painted was enough to have him smiling, at least, even though he knew some of their goals were impossible.

Knowing that they had really only come up with enough ideas for a few weeks at most, Derek decided to come up with further activities on his own.  There would always be the option of heading to the local park, whether for pick-up sport games, something more independent like frisbee, or even just letting them run off their energy.  He wrote that down on one piece of paper, adding things like renting movies, playing board games, and letting them play video games - things that could be done on any day if there wasn’t anything else they could come up with.

On a separate piece of paper, Derek started listing some of the more unique things he could do with Stiles and Scott.  Some he put a star beside to note that he’d need to clear the trips with the Deputy and Scott’s mom, things that would take them well out of town.  The zoo was one of those ideas, a good hour and a half drive away, and a few museums at a similar distance.  Derek was grateful that he’d applied for a provisional drivers license as soon as he could, because he would be able to actually drive the three of them, rather than trying to take a bus or getting someone else to make the drive.  He trotted downstairs to the family computer to research other options, taking care to keep everything within a two hour drive.

Once he had his list relatively full, Derek sighed and stretched, blinking when he looked at the time showing in the bottom right of the screen.  He’d missed dinner, and he was vaguely surprised that no-one had come to get him until he turned slightly and saw a folding table set up beside him with a covered plate on it.  He quickly devoured the food, his hunger catching up to him now that he was able to focus on it.  As he ate, he listened for the rest of his family and found most of them asleep in their beds, though it sounded like Laura, Ben and Eliza were watching a movie in the games room.  He went up to his room for long enough to drop off his sheets of ideas and then joined them.

“What were you working so hard on?” Laura asked once the movie was done.  Derek stretched for a long moment, enjoying the flicker of impatience he got.

“Ideas for things to do with Stiles and Scott while I babysit them this summer,” he told her once he thought he’d made her wait long enough.  “I don’t think I’ll be able to keep them occupied with nothing more than games and the park, so I was researching places I could take them that aren’t too far away.”

“You should bring them by the library,” Laura said, grinning at him.  “We do a summer reading program for elementary school age kids, and even let them read graphic novels for it.  It’s something that could take up a few hours a week at least.  Plus bringing them means that I can tease both you and them.”  Derek stuck his tongue out at her, but decided that her idea had merit.  He knew Stiles and Scott were both fans of comic books, and he was sure that he could turn that interest towards the more complex graphic novels.  He rather suspected that Stiles would also allow himself to be talked into real books.  And the advantage to the idea was that time for reading their choices could be added on to the time spent in the library.

He managed to catch the Deputy while he was picking up the boys one afternoon, and handed him a sheet with all of his trip ideas, asking the man to review them with Mrs. McCall and let him know which would be acceptable.  He got a raised eyebrow, but later in the week, the sheet of paper was returned to him with two of the trips stroked out and the rest with check marks beside them.  He received a hard pat on the back from the Deputy and a big grin from Stiles, who had undoubtedly stolen more than a few peeks at the list.  Derek had wondered why both Scott and Stiles had been particularly bouncy and excitable that day, and now it seemed that he knew.

The school year rapidly wound down to an end, and before he could even begin to think about how he was going to handle being responsible for two eleven year olds, he was knocking on the door of the Stilinski house.  Stiles opened it with a big grin on his face, swinging it wide open and gesturing him inside.  Derek hesitated briefly then followed the boy inside, kicking his shoes off just inside the door and hanging up his leather jacket.  It had been a gift from his sisters for his birthday, and despite the heat he was wearing it faithfully.  Scott bounded in from the left of the entry hall, the kitchen judging by the faint smells of cooking emanating from it.  He nearly tackled Derek with an energetic hug, but skidded to a stop with a small frown on his face.  Derek looked behind himself to see Stiles shaking his head at Scott, then abruptly affecting an innocent face when he caught Derek’s gaze.

“Alright, the two of you are going to behave for Derek the way you did when you were in the after-school program, OK?”  The Deputy came out of the kitchen following Scott, wiping his hands on a dishtowel which he then threw to Stiles.  Both boys nodded under the heavy gaze bent upon them, and Deputy Stilinski turned his attention to Derek.  “Our schedules for the next two weeks are on the fridge.  I’ve highlighted the times that we’ll need you around.  There’s leftover casserole in the fridge, and soup and sandwich stuff in the cupboards.  Feel free to help yourself if you’re hungry.  I just took the boys to the library to sign them up for that summer reading program this afternoon, so they both have books to read.  They’re allowed to play video games once they’ve read at least fifty pages each.”  He looked at them sternly once again, relenting when he got eager nods from both of them.

“Thank you Deputy Stilinski,” Derek said, feeling like he should be doing something to assure the man that he was ready and able to take on his responsibilities.  The Deputy looked at him, tilting his head slightly to the side, then smiled.

“Not at all, son.  Now, if you need anything, the numbers to reach both myself and Melissa are up on the fridge.  You can obviously also call the emergency line if there’s an actual emergency and it will reach me if you ask them to let me know.  Hopefully you won’t have to use that, so I’ve got both my desk line and my cell phone listed there, as well as the line to the front desk of the hospital.  They can get Melissa on the phone in a few minutes if you need her.”  Derek nodded rapidly, knowing that he would do almost anything to avoid having to call either of them if it wasn’t a real emergency.

“Alright, boys.  Behave.”  The Deputy pulled his son in for a hard hug, tousled Scott’s overgrown curls and then nodded to Derek.  Derek nodded back, watching warily as the man left the house, breathing out a small sigh of relief as the lock clicked into place behind him.  So far so good, he told himself, and as long as he could keep the two boys under some semblance of control for the evening, he would have survived his first shift.  He deliberately didn’t think about the fact that there were some fifty more to go after this one, or the fact that Stiles and Scott would likely be on their best behaviour tonight, with his authority from the after-school program still in place and their likely interest in impressing him.  By the end of the summer, they would certainly figure out that he wasn’t particularly cool, despite being a teenager with a car and a license, and they would be bored.

For now, though, they had a parent-mandated activity set up, they were happy just to be out of school, and they still thought of him having the same authority as their actual teacher.  He had to keep a positive mind-set and remind himself that he had handled them for months, even if it was with some help.  He shook his head minutely, looking up to see Stiles eying him curiously.

“Are you guys hungry?” he asked, pitching his voice so that Scott, who had disappeared back into the kitchen, could hear him.

“I’m just making sandwiches now,” Scott called back.  “Do you want one?”  Derek followed his voice into the kitchen, slightly surprised when he saw that Scott had laid out the ingredients for the sandwiches in a neat line and was in the process of methodically putting one together.

“Please,” Derek said after a moment.  “But no mustard on mine.  Once you’re done there, we’ll take these into the living room and you two can go get your books, OK?”  Scott gave him a smile and turned back to his task, while Stiles left, his footsteps pounding up the stairs.  Within a minute, they were coming back down, and he reappeared with three books in his arms.

“I grabbed your book for you, Scott,” he announced.  “I’ll take it to the living room if you’ll bring my sandwiches for me.”  Scott agreed with a faint noise and Stiles brushed past Derek to get to the living room.  Derek lingered to help Scott with the plates and glasses, carrying Stiles’ food as well as his own.  Stiles was already ensconced in one of the armchairs, so Derek set his plate and glass on the table beside him before taking his own over to the other armchair.  Scott happily took the couch, dropping his plate on the table and picking up the book that was waiting for him.

Derek relaxed as the two boys read in silence but for the sound of their chewing, and started in on his own sandwich.  He made a mental note to bring his own summer reading next time, choosing a book from one of the bookshelves in the meantime.  He collected the plates and glasses once both boys were done eating, and took the time to make himself a cup of tea in the kitchen.  Returning to his seat and his book, he took long enough to look over both boys before dropping back into his reading.


	6. Chapter 6

**SIX**

The zoo was crowded, children of all ages racing about through tight crowds of tired-looking adults.  Derek wasn’t the only teenager there, though he was one of the few, most of whom were with adults as well as other children (their parents and siblings, presumably).  He caught a few odd looks thrown at him and Stiles and Scott, most from women with children around the age of the boys.  It should be fairly obvious that he wasn’t their father, given their ages, and he doubted he looked enough like either of them to pass as their brother.  People were probably wondering what he was doing with them, and he could only hope that their excited behavior and obviously willing presence at least convinced everyone that there wasn’t anything wrong.

Derek paid their admission fees out of the cash he’d been given for the trip, corralling the two boys for long enough to get the wristbands onto them before releasing them with a reminded to stay within eyesight.  They shot off like arrows from a bow, and he followed at a more sedate pace, making sure to keep an eye on them.  They pulled up just short of where they would disappear from view and turned to look back for him, watching as he took his time wading through the crowd to reach them.  Once he was close enough, Stiles took hold of his wrist and dragged him along behind them as they hurried along the path they had chosen.

Derek wasn’t surprised that they ended up going to see the monkeys first.  Both boys stood in front of the enclosures, making silly faces and imitating the creatures.  Derek hung back, knowing that the right kind of breeze could potentially send his scent wafting over to the animals and spook them.  Zoo animals tended to be more resilient about his smell, likely from having people walk by with the scents of their pets on them all day, but he still smelled particularly wild, and particularly strongly of wolf.  It was enough that when a strong gust of wind carried his scent over to the meerkats nearby, they all stood at attention, noses quivering as they tried to identify the dangerous predator they had just smelled.  Eventually, all but one went back to their daily business, but that one stared intently in his direction for several minutes, keeping up a devoted guard.

Derek tried to keep to a similar distance as they moved through the zoo, but after a few stops, Stiles seemed to notice that he wasn’t there.  Although Derek tried to prevaricate and distract Stiles, eventually the boy just decided to take his arm and drag him over to the enclosure they were looking at, the grizzly bears.  Derek still tried to pull back and away, knowing that predatory animals were more likely to react in a bad way to his presence.  Stiles’ grip was difficult to resist, though, and Derek was forced to decide between using his true strength and giving in.  In the end, the sad look he received from Stiles was what made the decision for him, though he still kept himself a few steps behind the two boys.

They were still a good few feet from the enclosure when one of the bears rose up on its back legs, sniffing at the air and swaying back and forth slightly.  Derek immediately froze, instinctively resisting Stiles’ pulling.  He watched the bear warily, waiting to see if it was going to move one way or another.  There were thick iron bars around the enclosure, but he wasn’t about to rely on them if the bear truly thought he was a danger.  He was so occupied with watching the animal that he didn’t notice that Stiles had stopped pulling him and was staring up at him curiously.  When the bear dropped down to all fours and started trotting towards them, Derek took two steps back, dragging Stiles with him.

Scott suddenly appeared at his side, taking hold of Derek’s free hand as he continued to slowly back away, still keeping his gaze fixed on the bears.  Another bear had joined the first, and they were both standing with their noses pressed up against the inner, chain link, fence.  Derek was so focused on them that he didn’t see the looks that Stiles and Scott exchanged or the curious glances Stiles cast at the bears.  Once they were a fair distance away, one of the bear snorted and turned away, quickly followed by the other bear.  Derek watched them for several more seconds before sighing in relief, then looking down at the two hands clasping his own.

“I’m fine,” he said softly, trying his best to hide his embarrassment.  He shouldn’t have let Stiles pull him so close to the animals, and he shouldn’t have panicked when they had reacted.  His parents had brought him and his sisters to the zoo when they were younger, in order to accustom them to the way captive animals would act around them.  He knew the proper way to handle things, but his fear and worry for the two boys had overwhelmed him and he’d acted without thinking.

“You’re scared of zoo animals?” Scott asked, incredulousness leading him to be callously rude.  Stiles shoved gently at his friend, a frown on his face.

“I don’t like being too close to them,” Derek said, trying to carefully talk around the real issue without admitting to something so pathetically embarrassing.  “They always react strangely, so I don’t trust them to behave.”  That got him a blunt look of disbelief from Scott, and a strange side-eye from Stiles, but it seemed to have stemmed their questions, at least for the moment.

“You can go back to see the bears now,” Derek offered after several long moments of silence.  “I’ll just hang back and keep an eye on you.”  Scott took one last look at him, then nodded and turned away.  Stiles was about to follow after his friend when he turned back to Derek and laid a hand on his arm.

“Are you actually OK?” he asked, his face and voice full of concern.  Derek sighed at the fact that he’d clearly lost a lot of the respect the boys had for him just by dint of him being an adult, but he nodded nonetheless.  Stiles looked him over thoroughly, his eyes searching, then followed Scott.  Derek stayed where he was, leaning back on the stone building behind him and focusing on his breathing as his eyes tracked the two boys, making sure that they weren’t getting into any kind of trouble.

When they were ready to move on to another area, Stiles came to fetch him while Scott ran ahead, trusting his friend to follow behind.  Derek stuffed his hands in his pockets when Stiles looked like he might reach for one, not wanting to feel like he was a child who needed to be led about.  There was a flicker of disappointment on Stiles’ face for a moment, before he seized onto Derek’s sleeve, gave it a couple of tugs, and took off after Scott, constantly looking back to make sure Derek was still trailing after him.

That set their pattern for the rest of the afternoon: the boys would choose an area to go to, Scott would lead the way, and Stiles would come to fetch Derek, even if he was already beginning to follow them.  Neither boy insisted on him coming any closer to the animals than he deemed safe, and although their were a few looks when he chose to hang back from virtually all of the enclosures, neither of them said anything about it.  Derek had to convince them to stop for lunch, though once he had them seated with the overpriced burgers and slices of pizza in front of them, they devoured the food in a remarkable amount of time.  Luckily, there was something of a playground next to the picnic benches, so Derek was able to send them over to play while he finished his own meal.

It was getting close to dinner by the time the two boys declared the zoo conquered.  They had indeed seen all of the animals, and some more than once, so there was no fussing when Derek ushered them past the gift shop and out the front gates.  The one advantage to the energy the two boys had displayed was that they were both quiet on the long drive home.  Derek had intended to stop for dinner along the way, but when he looked at the backseat shortly before the exit, both boys were fast asleep, so he decided to let them continue to sleep and feed them when they got home.  It seemed like it was a good idea - by the time that they were pulling into town, Stiles was blinking awake.

“Pizza or burgers?” Derek asked.  Stiles blinked blearily at him and then grinned.

“Burgers.  You can get those from a drive-thru and I don’t feel like getting out of the car.”  Derek nodded, quickly assessing their necessary route, then taking the next left.  Scott woke up just as they were getting in line for the drive-thru, and managed to mumble out an order that Stiles translated for Derek.  Derek relayed everything to the cashier on the other end of the line and by the time he had pulled forward to pay, Scott was dozing again.  The girl at the window didn’t seem to think anything of the fact that he was a seventeen year old with two eleven year old boys in the back of his vehicle, simply taking the cash he extended to her and returning his change, then gesturing him on to the next window.

Stiles shook Scott awake as they were pulling into the driveway of the McCall house, and chivvied his best friend up the stairs and into the house while Derek collected the bags of fast food and brought them in.  He deposited them on the dining room table, careful to get them on a placemat rather than the tablecloth to avoid grease spots.  He could hear Scott and Stiles in the kitchen so he followed them in.  Scott was leaning heavily against the counter, blinking blearily while Stiles got glasses out from one of the cupboards and filled one with water.  He pressed it into Scott’s hand, encouraging his friend to take small sips, each of which seemed to wake him up a little bit more.

Once Scott was done with his glass of water, Stiles poured all three glasses full of orange juice, handing a clean one and Scott’s old one to Derek before taking hold of Scott’s arm with his free hand and towing him along.  The three of them sat up at the table, Derek running back into the kitchen for plates despite the fact that Stiles teased him for wanting to eat fast food with any kind of dignity.  Derek could somewhat understand his point, given that the three of them had their food devoured and plates all-but licked clean within ten minutes, but he still gave Stiles a quelling look.

While he quickly cleaned up, the boys went into the living room to choose either a video game to play or a movie to watch, depending on their mood.  Derek ducked outside to grab his bag from his car, figuring that he could get a little reading time in if they chose something he wasn’t interested in.  His preparations weren’t necessary - the opening credits of Star Wars were rolling, and Derek knew Stiles hated the new trilogy.  He settled into the armchair, holding back a grin at the way Scott and Stiles were draped over the couch, and let himself get lost in the movie.


	7. Chapter 7

**SEVEN**

Derek was daydreaming, only nominally paying attention to his teacher droning, when there was a knock on the classroom door.  Mr. Alvez turned towards it, but before he could get more than a few steps closer, the door opened, and the principal’s secretary poked her head into the classroom.

“I need Derek Hale, por favor Mr. Alvez,” the secretary said, giving the teacher a bright grin.  He relaxed, either because of her use of Spanish in a Spanish classroom or because she was a pretty young woman, and turned to nod at Derek.  Derek stood, then looked at his desk and up at the secretary.

“Bring your things.  I don’t know how long you’re needed for.”  He nodded and quickly packed up his books and pencils, not bothering to worry about keeping them neat in his bag.  He couldn’t smell any anxiety, fear, or sadness on the secretary, but he couldn’t help but fear that something had gone wrong somehow.  He knew he hadn’t done anything worthy of being called into the principal’s office, and he doubted that he was going to be praised for either his attendance record or his grades, given that both had slipped after the debacle with Kate last year.  He forced his worries down, trying to keep an open mind rather than letting himself get worked up.  It was possible that something had happened that was bad enough to merit calling him down, but not something that couldn’t be fixed or gotten over.

His anxiety spiked again when he was ushered into the main office and found Eliza and Ben already seated in chairs.  The secretary ushered him over to take a seat next to his cousins and then disappeared into the principal’s office.  Derek caught a glimpse of uniform behind her as she slipped in, and had to force down a wave of nausea and fear.  Eliza and Ben caught the scent of his fear and both tensed, their heads whipping around to look at him.

“There’s a police officer in the principal’s office,” he breathed, knowing they could hear him.  They all fell silent as voices came from the office, trying to catch the words.  Despite the fact that none of the adults could know that they were werewolves, they all were keeping their voices low enough that the interference of the door prevented Derek from distinguishing anything clearly.  He heard snippets and single short words, like “she” and “gone” and “safe”, none of which reassured him at all about what they were going to be told.

Derek’s worries peaked when his mother came into the office, despite the fact that she was radiating calm reassurance.  He didn’t quite run to her and hide his head in her lap the way he would have even five years ago, but his quick jump to his feet in order to hug her certainly couldn’t be called dignified.  She held him tightly, the first sign of nerves that he’d seen so far, and held out a hand to Eliza and Ben, who came over almost as quickly as Derek hand.

“What’s going on, Mom?” Derek asked once the four of them separated and sat down on their chairs again.  “Why were we called here, why is there a police officer in there, and why are you here?”  He stopped in order to breathe, his eyes wide and fixed on Talia.  She smiled softly at him and rubbed a hand over his hair in a reassurance she’d used since he was young.

“I don’t know, dear,” she told him.  “I was asked to come here in order to have an adult with you.  I’m sure it’s nothing that we can’t handle.”  Her smile was sharp-edged, which should not have made Derek feel reassured, but it did.  He could tell that his Alpha was here and ready to take on any dangers that might come in order to protect him and the rest of the pack.  It wasn’t enough to soothe all his fears, and he nearly jumped out of his skin when the door to the principal’s office opened and the secretary beckoned the four of them in.

There were two officers in the room with the principal, Deputy Stilinski and a black woman whose nametag identified her as Deputy Graeme.  Derek eyed both of them warily, not sure how to feel about the presence of two Deputies.  He had no reason to distrust Deputy Stilinski and plenty of reasons to trust him, but he couldn’t imagine that there would be anything good coming of this meeting.  The slight stiffness in his mother’s body told him that she had come to the same conclusion, though she masked it with a polite smile as she shook hands with Deputy Stilinski and the principal and was formally introduced to Deputy Graeme.

“We’re very sorry to have had to call you here like this, Mrs. Hale,” Deputy Stilinski said once they were all seated and the secretary had closed the door behind herself.  The room was cramped with seven of them in there, and Derek, Eliza, Ben, and Deputy Graeme were all left to stand while Deputy Stilinski and Talia took the two chairs in front of the desk and the principal resumed his seat behind it.

“Please, call me Talia,” Derek’s mother said.  “And I’m sure you have a very good reason for asking us all to be here.”  Derek felt his lips twitch and schooled his face still - he was quite familiar with his mother’s way of hiding a rebuke in what seemed like a compliment.  She was subtly asking the Deputy to tell them what was going on as soon as possible, rather than wasting time on the niceties.  Whether he understood what she was saying or just reacted instinctively to what she was saying, he bobbed his head and bluntly told them his news.

“Kate Argent will be released from the mental health institution she is at next month.  The doctors believe that her trying to burn down your house was due to a mental breakdown caused by losing her mother.  They say that they have talked it through with her and now believe that she is not in danger of re-offending.  We were able to talk them into keeping her for observation a little longer, but they won’t hold onto her for much longer.”

Derek’s head swam and dark spots danced in his vision.  He didn’t want to believe what he was hearing, but he knew it had to be true.  He’d been fearing the day that Kate got out since she’d cut a deal to plead insanity and had been handed over to doctors instead of jail guards.  He leaned back against the wall, feeling Eliza and Ben bracket him, and forced himself to focus on his mother.  She would handle this, he told himself.  She had to be able to.  He wasn’t able to even see what was going on last time, never mind stop it.  Surely he would be told to keep as far away from the whole situation as possible.

“Thank you for letting us know, Deputy,” Talia said politely, her face a passive mask.  Derek subtly scented the air, trying to determine what she was actually feeling.  Ben dug an elbow into his side, snapping Derek back to the moment.  Deputy Graeme was watching him with a considering look on her face, so he sniffled dramatically a couple of times to make it seem like that was all he had been doing before.  His mother shot him a sharp glance at his first sniffle, but whatever she saw or smelled reassured her, because she didn’t say anything.

The Deputies had more information for Talia, mostly related to the Order of Protection she would be filing against Kate and what to expect when Kate was free.  Derek tuned it all out, focusing instead on the comforting beat of his mother’s and cousins’ hearts.  He left his eyes open, though he wanted to close them to focus only on his pack, knowing that closing them would be another strange and suspicious action in the eyes of the humans in the room.  He didn’t look as terrified as he felt despite that precaution, but he couldn’t muster the energy to go wide-eyed and shivering the way most humans would.  It was enough to suppress the urge to curl up in his mother’s lap, he told himself, enough to simply look concerned and a little faint.  Not all humans panicked in the same way, after all.

It took about an hour for them to be released, and Talia took one look at the three of them before immediately requesting that they be released for the day.  The principal didn’t even hesitate for a moment, just waved his hand and nodded to the secretary that had come to escort Talia off premises and Derek and his cousins back to class.  She took them to her desk and quickly pulled out the permission slips before sitting down at her desk and beginning to record their absences.  Talia handed over the slips once she had filled them out and the secretary printed out a sheet and stapled them to it before filing it all away neatly.

Talia had brought the family van, rather than her two-door car, so the four of them quickly loaded in and began the drive home.  Ben, who was sitting in the front seat, was passed the cellphone that was always left with the keys.

“Call your father and mother and Uncles Liam and Peter,” Talia told him.  “Tell them to get home as soon as is reasonable.  We’ve got news that we need to discuss as a pack.”  Ben quickly dialed first his parents and then Derek’s father and Uncle Peter.  They made a quick detour to the elementary school, where Derek and Talia went in to pick up Cora.  Derek was sent to fetch Cora from class while his mother signed her out in the office.  He wasn’t surprised to find Stiles and Scott in her class, though he had to avoid their interested looks while he waited for his sister to pack up her bag and join him.  Stiles seemed to sense that something was wrong, as his looks were more concerned than Scott’s.  Derek kept his face as flat as he could and only gave the boys a nod as they were leaving.

Cora could either smell or sense the tension, because she kept her mouth shut on the drive home.  By the time they made it, everyone but Uncle Peter was waiting.  He strolled in five minutes after they settled into the living room, blithely ignoring the stern looks he got from his sister and brother.  Once he was seated, Talia quickly summarized the news they had received from the Deputies.  Most of the adults didn’t react much, though Peter’s forehead wrinkled a few times.  Laura, who had been called and put on speaker, made a few choked noises, but even she didn’t dare to interrupt the Alpha when it came to the safety of the pack.  Once Talia was done with her explanation, she let them all sit in silence for a long moment, then gave them a wolfish smile.

“Here’s what we’re going to do...”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for Kate and the ickyness that is her.

**EIGHT**

Talia’s plan required more out of Derek than he had expected, but he had to admit it would likely work.  He wasn’t thrilled to be acting as the bait, but he was the one that Kate was most likely to listen to.  The trick would be to not seem like he had sought her out.  He couldn’t simply wait at the gates for her to be released, nor could he track her down to wherever she was staying.  Talia had heard mutterings that Kate’s brother Chris and his family were heading towards Beacon Hills, so it seemed likely that upon her release, Kate would move in with them somewhere in town.  Knowing that, they all presumed that he would be able to run into her somewhere in town.

Peter was detailed to covertly follow Kate around during the day once she was back in town, as he had the most flexible work schedule.  Uncle Matt, Aunt Hannah and Derek’s mother and father would take turns watching in the evenings and overnight, and Eliza, Ben, and Cora were allowed to help out on occasion during the evenings and on weekends.  Talia warned them that their schoolwork still had to come first and that if their grades slipped, they would be kept away from the whole situation.  They all agreed, though Derek knew that he would have to play his part regardless of how his grades were doing.  Still, he had to be at least nominally included in the warning, and he knew he would pay if he used the necessity of his participation to excuse poor marks.

To that effect, he did his best to work ahead in his classes, even going so far as to speak to his teachers and getting some of his homework and assignments early.  There were some that he couldn’t get, and he would still have to review so that he was ready for any tests and pop quizzes, but he did as much as he could to ensure that when he was needed, he could be available at any time.  He was still volunteering with the elementary school after-school program, but he wasn’t needed and Mr. Panopolous was happy to tell him that he could take off any afternoons he needed for his special school project.  Derek didn’t tell his parents about his pre-planning, but he was fairly certain that they knew and approved of his forethought.

Derek had expected the month to either drag or fly by, and it somehow managed to do both.  While he was planning and preparing, each day seemed to be too short to accomplish everything he wanted to do.  He found that he should have paced himself better, because he ran out of distractions one week before Kate was due to be released.  That one week dragged on as long as the previous few had rushed, and he nearly received detention a few times due to his inattention and lack of care.  He had to forcibly restrain himself from any more bad behaviour before he earned punishment from his mother.  Luckily a few classes of him behaving oddly wasn’t enough to have his teachers contacting her, though she would have been told if he had received detention.

The one distraction in that last week was a note that Cora brought home with her, a note written on wrinkled lined paper in the shaky writing of an eleven-year-old.  It was several pages long, so Derek leafed through to the last page to look at the signature of the letter writer.  He wondered if he should have been more surprised to see that it came from Stiles, but he couldn’t imagine who else it could have been.  True, he was friendly with several of the kids in the after-school program, and Scott knew him as well as Stiles, but only Stiles would have been able to overhear the fact that Kate was coming back.  It touched Derek to see that Stiles cared enough about him to not only eavesdrop but to send him a letter that could reveal to his father that he had.

He intended to write a response, and actually spent a bit of time working on it, but every time he re-read Stiles’ letter, he found himself thinking about what would happen with Kate and how he would handle their inevitable meeting.  He’d been told the general idea of what he needed to say and do, but his mother had decided that Kate would only trust him if he was able to act like himself, and so he was having to come up with his own script.  He had a few pieces of notebook paper with thoughts and ideas jotted down on them, and there were a few more crumpled in the trashcan in his room.  When he found that his ideas were getting more and more wild and unreasonable, he would force himself back to his letter to Stiles, only to find himself back to planning shortly thereafter.

He was in class when his cellphone buzzed in his pocket.  The only people who had the number were his family, and they wouldn’t be texting him in class unless it was urgent, so he pulled it out and subtly checked it underneath his desk.  There was a simple, one-line text there from a number he knew was his mother’s own disposable cell.  Peter has found the silver ring, it read.  To anyone else, it would look like a note from one family member to another about something like a family heirloom that had been missing.  Derek knew that it meant that his uncle was tracking not only Kate, but her brother and his family.  It meant that their suspicions were almost certainly correct and she would be staying in the area for quite some time.  It meant that he had a chance to put their plan into place and trap Kate in jail for quite a long time.  There was the possibility that they could get her put away for life.

The next few days were even more tense than the previous week.  Brief, coded texts kept Derek appraised of what was going on, but he felt restless as he waited for his family to obtain enough information on Kate’s whereabouts and comings and goings to put their plan into place.  He wasn’t sure how Peter was managing to stay on Kate’s trail without alerting her to his presence, but information flowed quickly from him throughout the next few days, bits and pieces about where she went, when she left, and whether she seemed to be establishing a rhythm.  That was what they ideally wanted, so that it would seem less suspicious if Derek happened to “stumble” upon her one day.  Their hopes seemed to be realized - Kate went to the same cafe every day around four, sitting down with a coffee and a baked good and reading either a book or the paper for about an hour before leaving.  An additional bonus to their plan was that the cafe was well known as the best spot for custom cakes.  Best of all, Laura’s upcoming birthday made the perfect excuse for Derek to go in one day right after school and order a cake.  That should put him in Kate’s sights, and if she didn’t approach him at that point, he would have to go back in order to pick up the cake.

They waited two weeks to allow Kate to be lulled, and then sent Derek into the cafe to order the cake.  He only had one absolute rule - he was not to initiate contact with Kate.  Technically, there was a restraining order on her.  If he approached her, she would not be violating it, so he had to let her come to him.  He didn’t think it would be a problem - all of his excitement had turned into anxiety and he was dreading having to see Kate again.  He didn’t want to back out, though, despite the fact that he was given many opportunities to do so.  He clutched the memory of the pep-talk his mother had given to him to himself as he went into the cafe.  He could see Kate out of the corner, but he kept his attention focused on the back of the man in front of him until he reached the cashier.

“I would like to pre order a cake for my sister Laura’s birthday,” he told the girl, managing to keep himself from spitting out the words as quickly as possible.  He didn’t allow himself to turn his head in Kate’s direction, though he could see her golden-brown hair shining in the sun out of the corner of his eye.  The girl behind the counter asked him to wait and went to fetch the manager, as they had known she would.  The inevitable delay was part of the reason they had picked the subterfuge of Derek ordering a cake, because it would give Kate longer to notice him and decide to approach him.  He shifted slightly, trying to calm the restlessness beneath his skin.  In his mind, he recited the mantra his mother had taught him, though he’d been in control of his shifting since Kate had been arrested, using his fear and anger as an anchor.

The manager returned with the cashier, a sheet of paper and a binder with him.  He took Derek to the far end of the counter and they leaned with their heads together, working out the details for the cake.  Kate was only a few tables away, close enough that Derek didn’t even have to strain or tilt his head to keep her in the corner of his eye.  He saw her head move and the peach blur that was her face turn towards him, framed by a mass of tawny color.  She had seen him, he knew, so he turned himself slightly to the side so that she could get a better look, hiding it by pretending to look closer at the binder full of sample cakes.

He was so focused on his pretense that he almost missed her standing up, the peach and gold replaced by the white and black of her shirt and jacket.  He had to force himself to keep breathing and keep from looking in her actual direction, knowing that now was the moment of most risk to his family’s plan.  Kate couldn’t know that they expected and wanted her to approach him - she had to think that he was unaware of her and here on his own business.  He casually tucked his hand nearest her into a loose fist, hoping that he didn’t end up sprouting claws.  He didn’t entirely trust his control with the strain her presence was putting on his temper.

He could feel her hovering just behind his shoulder when the bell tinkled, signalling that someone was coming in.  Derek had long enough to notice that he recognized the heart beats coming in before Kate’s presence quickly passed behind him.  He was about to whip his head up and around to watch her when a warm body thudded into his side, arms wrapping around his waist.  He looked down instead, into Stiles smiling face.

“Hi, Derek!” he chirped brightly.  Behind him, Deputy Stilinski turned around from where he had been looking at Kate’s retreating back, and shook his head at the sight of his son.  The manager sighed but didn’t say anything about Stiles distracting Derek from their transaction.

“Why aren’t you at the after school program?” Derek asked Stiles, so used to the boy’s exuberant hugs that he didn’t even try to wriggle himself free.

“Dad had the afternoon off, so he’s treating me to hot chocolate and a brownie.  Why don’t you join us?”  Stiles didn’t even look back at his father to check that the offer was acceptable, so Derek did.  The Deputy sighed but smiled at Derek and nodded.

“Sure,” Derek said, returning his attention to Stiles.  “Just let me finish ordering this cake for my sister and I’ll join you.”  Stiles nodded eagerly and let go, drifting back over to his father’s side while Derek turned back to the manager and quickly finished up the order.  All the while all he could think about was whether Kate had seen Stiles with him and what she might do if she had.


	9. Chapter 9

**NINE**

“So that’s what happened,” Derek finished, leaning back as the tension left his body.  His mother, father, aunt, and uncles had all been silent for his entire retelling of what had happened in the cafe.  Now, they all shifted and turned to one another, clearly ready to discuss their next moves.  Before they could start, Talia held up her hand and focused on her son.

“You did well, Derek, and thank you for letting us know.  We need to discuss this without you around.  Go upstairs with your sister and cousins.  We’ll tell you if we need anything further from you.”  Derek wanted to protest, but he could tell from the tone of his mother’s voice that she wouldn’t tolerate any questioning from him.  He nodded, hiding his expression as best he could, and left the office where the adults were gathered.  Once out of it, he took a few deep breaths and started to go up the stairs slowly, keeping his hearing focused on the noises coming from the office.  He was about halfway up the stairs when his Aunt Hannah started to speak, so he paused, nearly holding his breath.  He waited for several long moments before creeping back down the stairs until he was within hearing distance, then tucked himself into one of the nooks in the stairway, carefully arranging his body around the photo frames and plants already there.  If anyone came looking for him, he would be obvious, but a casual glance out the door of the office wouldn’t be enough to reveal him.

“The Stilinskis are in danger, yes,” his mother said, and Derek stilled, turning his attention back to the conversation.  “I don’t know that we can invite them into our home, though, even as a temporary solution.”

“Derek’s friendship with the boy is what put them in danger,” Uncle Matt insisted, his voice sharp.  “That makes it our responsibility to protect them.”

“I don’t disagree,” Talia responded, sounding placating.  “I just don’t know that inviting them into our home is the best way to do that.  For one thing, it would in theory give Kate one target to attack instead of multiple.  And their ignorance of who and what we are will protect them from hunters other than her, which will be of more protection that what we can provide.”  There was a burble of overlapping speech, with what sounded to be the other four trying to argue either for or against giving the Stilinskis protection.  It went on for several long moments, but as it died down, Derek heard his Uncle Peter sigh.

“Why don’t we get them out of the way without appearing to be involved?” he asked, his voice faking patience.  “The Fall Faire is this weekend, and there will be raffles.  We can sponsor a trip to Hawaii or a cruise as a prize and make sure that the Deputy wins it.  A few words in the Sheriff’s ear and he will be eager to encourage his Deputy to take the trip now.  It will at least get them out of town for a week or two.  We’ve got more than enough money to make it happen.”  There was silence for a few breaths then murmurs of agreement, which culminated in Derek’s mother expressing her approval.

“That will work beautifully, Peter.  We will watch over the Stilinskis until we are able to get them on a plane.  A week of supervision ought to be something we can handle without arousing the Argents’ suspicions any further.  I expect that you are willing to move to following the Deputy?”

“Of course,” Peter responded smoothly.  To Derek, he almost sounded excited at the prospect, which was more than a little strange.  Derek had to dismiss it as his own imagination, because there was no reason for Peter to want to follow Deputy Stilinski.  He was distracted by the sounds of rustling and chairs moving in the office, and hurried to pad upstairs as quietly as possible.  He grabbed his mp3 player and headphones and draped himself over his bed with one of his textbooks in front of him.

Derek was actually quite deep in his class readings by the time his mother came to check on him.  She looked like she wanted to tell him off for not joining Cora, Eliza, and Ben in the games room, but she was pleased that he was working on school work and didn’t want to discourage that.  Instead of commenting on his location and occupation, she gave him a very brief overview of what the adults had decided to do for the Stilinskis.  Derek carefully kept his face blank and encouraged feelings of pleasant approval to hide his prior knowledge of the plan.  He earned a brief look of surprise from his mother, likely for the fact that he didn’t argue with their choice not to offer up their home as refuge, but when he nodded and accepted what he was told of the plan, she seemed relieved.

Because he wasn’t supposed to know any of the details of how the family were getting the Stilinskis out of the way, Derek had to hold his tongue and hide his impatience as the week trickled by.  He went to the faire with a group of his old basketball teammates in order to avoid being around while his parents set up the raffle prize and arranged to have Deputy Stilinski win it.  Derek didn’t want to know how they were going to fix what should be a random draw, and he especially didn’t want them to recognize that he knew what they were doing.  His old friends were more than a little surprised that Derek wanted to spend time with them, which sent a flash of guilt through him, but they were happy to include him, especially when he surreptitiously helped a couple of them win prizes for their girlfriends at the games booths.

When the raffle draw was announced, Derek followed his friends to the open area where the draw was being held, though he kept to the back of the group so that he could get away if he needed to.  He could see his mother and his uncle Matt up near the front, with Cora tucked away behind his mother.  The rest of the family wasn’t in the area, judging by the scent of the crowd.  Derek wondered again how they were going to ensure that Deputy Stilinski won the Hawaiian vacation they had generously donated, though he only allowed himself a moment of curiosity before he focused on the conversations his friends were having.  They talked through the first few draws, none of them having been allowed to buy tickets as they were all under eighteen.  It was only when the bigger prizes were being drawn that they started to pay attention to who was winning.  There were five large prizes, the most valuable of which was a car, donated by a few of the wealthiest families in town.  The other four large prizes were all vacations, and the one Derek’s family had sponsored was the second smallest.  They had carefully ensured that their prize wouldn’t stand out or cause any suspicion, to the point of also donating some of the cost of the second largest prize, a trip for two to France.

The prize winners were being pulled from a large bucket by various members of the community, so Derek was only slightly surprised when Cora was beckoned up on stage to draw the winner of the Hawaii trip.  The intense look on her face told him all he needed to know - she was the trick to ensuring that Deputy Stilinksi won the draw, and she was going to have to hide what she was doing very carefully.  Derek didn’t like the fact that she was the one taking the risk, but he supposed it made sense, as she was the least likely to be suspected of cheating.  He watched her closely as she dipped her hand into the bucket and pulled it back out with a piece of paper clutched in her fist, but even he couldn’t see how she had managed to ensure she got the Deputy’s ticket.

With the success of the first part of their plan, Talia quickly moved to set the second part in place.  For a few days, she came home smelling like the Sheriff’s department and the Sheriff himself.  Derek’s uncle Matt also seemed to be working on convincing the Sheriff, as he also smelled like the man and his workplace, though less often than Talia did.  Derek especially didn’t want to contemplate what they had been doing, though he was fairly certain that it was much more along the lines of assisting the man with his upcoming reelection campaign than anything more horrifying,  Whatever it was, it worked, as he had known it would.

Though his mother and uncle would have had some suspicion, Derek was the first to know officially that Stiles and his father would be safely out of the way.  Five days after the faire, Stiles stopped Derek on their way to the after school program and told him that he was going to be away for the following two weeks.  Derek smiled and congratulated him when Stiles told him that his dad had won a trip to Hawaii for the two of them and had been encouraged to take the time off right away.  Apparently the Sheriff had given his Deputy some speech about things being quiet after the faire but ramping back up closer to Halloween.  It sounded a little forced to Derek, but he was hearing it third-hand from Stiles, so he wasn’t sure how much of the boy’s chatter was true and how much was his own imaginings.

The next day was Stiles’ last day at school before the trip, and he demanded that Derek come and say goodbye before he was gone.  He wasn’t going to be in the after school program that day, as his dad was supposed to get off shift early to pick him up, so Derek found himself skipping his last class and walking over to the elementary school.  He felt a little awkward hanging out near the front door at first, but as more and more parents and relatives showed up to pick up their kids, he began to blend in and felt less obvious.  The bell ringing startled Derek, and he pressed himself against a wall to avoid what he knew was an inevitable stampede of kids.

Stiles emerged near the tail-end of the first rush, and he looked around the open space for a moment before spotting Derek and pushing his way through the small crowd towards his friend.  Derek stayed where he was, but braced himself for the hug that Stiles through himself into as soon as he was close enough.  Derek hugged him back, surprised by how much he had to restrain himself from crushing Stiles to him.  It had to be relief at the knowledge that by the same time the next day, Stiles and his father would be safe on an airplane and heading to Hawaii for a fairly incredible vacation.

“Thanks for coming,” Stiles told Derek, shouting to be heard over the commotion that was still going on around them.  “We’re leaving tomorrow morning at like 8am to be in Redding in time for our flight, and we need to pack tonight.  This was the only time I could say goodbye.”

“You could have said goodbye yesterday,” Derek pointed out, chuckling fondly.  “Or just not said it at all.  You’ll be back in two weeks anyway.”  Stiles grumbled at him and hugged him again, then waved a final goodbye before rushing towards the police car that had just pulled up.

“Stiles,” Derek called, and the boy turned back to look at him.  “Have fun.”  Stiles grinned and returned Derek’s wave, then pushed through the crowd and was lost to even the werewolf’s sight.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for suggested torture. Again, nothing graphic but it is there.

**TEN**

Derek was in the middle of a problem set for his math class on Monday when he heard tires crunching rapidly on the gravel driveway.  He jumped off his bed and ran to the window to see Peter’s car racing up to the house.  He didn’t even wait to see Peter get out of the car, just hurried down the stairs, reaching the front door in time to open it for his uncle.  The look on Peter’s face made Derek fall back a few steps, panic filling him.

“What happened?” he heard himself demanding before he was even aware that the words were out of his mouth.  Peter’s jaw clenched and he shook his head before pushing past Derek and into the house.  Derek trailed after him, trying not to let his imagination take over.  Peter was supposed to have followed Stiles and his father to the airport and then returned to his watch over Kate, so his being here spelled some fairly awful things for Derek’s young friend.  He tried to reassure himself that it was possible that Peter was upset about something to do with Kate, but the hope felt flat.  Still, he wasn’t going to let his uncle report to Talia without doing his best to listen in, so he continued to trail after the older man like a lost duckling.

“What happened?” Talia asked when they found her in her office, an unconscious echo of her son’s earlier question.  Peter glanced at Derek, who glowered at first his uncle and then his mother and stood in a pose that he hoped conveyed determination.  He wasn’t sure that he’d succeeded, but his mother sighed at him then waved at Peter to go ahead, so he counted it as a win.

“Kate Argent has Stiles and John Stilinski,” Peter said bluntly.  Derek felt his entire chest compress on his heart, and he stumbled backward, sitting down hard when the backs of his knees hit a chair.  His mother started upright, but when he looked up at her with blank eyes and nodded, she sat down again and looked back at his uncle Peter.

“Tell me the whole story.”

It was a little bit better than Derek had expected - Peter had followed Stiles and his father to the airport and waited long enough for their flight to leave, then started making his way towards the Argent house.  On the way there, he’d caught their scents, mingled with fear and pain.  Seeing as there was no reason for them to have been in the area recently enough to leave such a strong scent, Peter immediately presumed that someone had kidnapped them.  He’d tracked their scents as far as he could, but lost the trail within a few blocks when he stumbled on a hunter trap that used Argent materials and methods.  It wasn’t the proverbial smoking gun, but it made a fairly good case for Stiles and the Deputy having been taken by Kate.

The only piece of reassuring information that Peter had was that he hadn’t smelled any blood while tracking the Stilinskis.  Derek held out hope that Kate wouldn’t hurt them unless and until she could use them against him or someone in his family.  She didn’t follow the code, that much was obvious, but he couldn’t imagine that even a hunter as psychotic as her would harm two perfectly innocent and unaware humans for no reason.  He didn’t want to consider how likely it was that she would go so far as to hurt them if doing so would gain her an advantage over a werewolf, though.

“We have to find them and get them away from her before she knows we know they’re missing,” Talia said bluntly.  The statement had Derek’s breath come a little easier in his lungs, and he sat up slightly.  “We’ll break up into groups of two and try and sniff them out,” his mother continued.  “I doubt Kate would have taken them out of town if she’s trying to use them as bait, so we can divide the town up into sections and search everything.  If a team finds them, they’ll back off and call in the rest of the pack”  Derek nodded along with his uncle, relieved that they already had a plan.  Even though he knew logically that the Stilinskis were safe for the moment, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the longer they were with Kate, the higher their risk of danger was.  He supposed it was a logical fear, given that every minute was another minute for Kate to put whatever plan she might have into place.

The rest of the pack were quickly called and they all gathered in the living room, every face a study in concern and fear.  Derek felt a flicker of comfort in the fact that all of his family clearly cared about finding Stiles and his father, even if they didn’t feel the level of guilt and responsibility that he did.  He was tempted to just go present himself to Kate in the hopes that she would take him in place of them, but he knew that they were too strong of a motivator and threat to the pack for her to ever willingly let them go.  His mother shot him a sharp look, seeming to be able to understand what he was thinking about.  She paired him with Peter (who was equally motivated to find the Stilinskis, albeit for a different reason) and nodded when Derek returned her look, telling him that it was her way of giving him a better option than sacrificing himself.

They set out almost immediately, Peter driving them back to where he’d found the trap that ended the scent trail.  The two of them spread out and circled the trap, trying to pick up something that might tell them where to head.  The trail that led to the trap was obvious, enough so that Derek wondered if it had been laid with the intention of walking them right into the trap, but otherwise there was no sign of Stiles or his father anywhere around the booby-trapped house.

“I don’t get it,” Derek said.  “How could they have gone in but not come out?  I can’t hear any heartbeats inside, so unless they’re dead in there, they were taken somewhere else.”  Peter looked up from where he’d been stalking around the garage, a flicker of his usual devilry in his eyes.

“They were,” he said, his voice full of amusement.  Derek bit his tongue to keep himself from snapping at his uncle and waited for him to continue.  He hadn’t forgotten Peter’s part in what had happened to Paige, so he didn’t trust the man entirely.  The only reason he had any faith in Peter putting any real effort into finding Stiles and the Deputy was that Peter had been responsible for monitoring them.  Peter might be unreliable and have an attitude that the entire world was a joke for his benefit, but he still wanted to please the Alpha and the pack, and he hated to admit that he might fail.

“A car went in here and then left again,” Peter explained once it was clear that Derek wasn’t going to take the bait.  “I’m fairly certain it went that way,” he gestured north, “so we should try and track it.  If we reach the end of the trail and don’t find our friends, we can come back and try the other direction.”  Derek quickly assessed his uncle’s tone of voice and decided that he was being honest.  Peter was the best tracker in the pack, so if he thought he could tell which direction the car had left versus where it had come from, it was worth following his instincts.

“Let’s go, then,” he said abruptly, marching off without waiting for Peter to lead the way.  It only took a few steps for his uncle to catch up, and Derek allowed him to take the lead as they tracked the faint individual tones in the scent of the car.  Cars were much harder to distinguish between than people, and by the time they came to one of the main streets in town, Derek couldn’t find the trail.  Peter’s keener nose even seemed to be having troubles, judging by the number of times they looped back.  Luckily, Peter never completely lost the scent, and although it took them the better part of an hour to find the side street the car had taken out of the downtown area, they were able to pick the pace back up once they were clear of the main press of humanity.

They found themselves travelling through the suburbs, the car having woven through the streets and circling around the town several times.  Derek lost the scent twice, relying on Peter to find it again amongst the muddle of other vehicles and pedestrian traffic.  They were almost caught in traps three times, once when they were lead into a house, and twice out in parks.  Each time, they had to circle the traps until they could catch the scent again, a prospect made much more difficult by the faintness of the distinguishing smells of the car.  Peter was invaluable in each instance, and Derek almost felt fond towards his scheming uncle for his help.

It felt like it took them days to follow the trail, though Derek knew it was only a matter of hours.  They finally found themselves circling an old barn just outside the city limits, trying to determine if it was safe to leave the trees and approach.  Peter was holding Derek back from doing so, reminding him of the fact that they were alone with reinforcements still at least ten to fifteen minutes away.  Derek could hear Stiles’ heartbeat in the barn, and the painful, fearful skipping of it made him want to disregard his own safety in order to rush in and to the rescue immediately.  It was only the knowledge that doing so would likely lead to all of their deaths that stopped him.  Instead, he waited, growing more impatient with every moment that went past.

Derek stiffened as a large SUV pulled up alongside of the barn, on the near side so that they could see, and Kate stepped out.  Peter slid both of them behind a bush, so that they could see but not be seen.  Kate did cast a casual glance around the field and surrounding woods, but she spent only a moment checking for watchers before she went into the barn.  There was a man that followed her, nondescript and dressed in black, who didn’t even bother to check around him before he also went into the barn.  Peter’s grip on his shoulder was all that kept Derek where he was, and it tightened when they both saw the flicker of electricity in the windows of the barn.  Stiles’ heartbeat spiked, but there were no screams of pain from either him or his father, so Derek presumed that Kate was showing off.  She had the tendency to do that, though the way she had done it with him was far different.

“Hold on,” Peter whispered to him.  “They’re ten minutes out, your mother says.”  Derek nodded, not taking his eyes off the windows in the barn, or his hearing off Stiles’ heartbeat.  When the flickering electricity came through again and Stiles screamed, Peter’s claws dug into Derek’s shoulder and tore through it as the younger werewolf raced towards the barn.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for canon-typical violence.

**ELEVEN**

They were either insanely lucky or walking right into a terrible trap, because Derek and Peter made it across the field with no sign that they’d been spotted by anyone.  Derek pressed himself against the side of the barn and eased his way around it, moving as quickly as he could while still trying to stay undetected.  Without Stiles’ screams ringing in his ears, he was a little better able to consider what he was getting himself into and the few things he could do to increase his chances of staying alive.  One of those things was taking the time to actually manage to make it into the barn, which would also give his shoulder the time it needed to heal.  Peter had obviously decided to follow rather than hinder him after that one attempt, and Derek spared a moment to feel grateful for that extra little bit of hope on his side.  Peter could be vicious if he felt he needed to be, and Derek would need him to watch his back if nothing else.

There were seven heartbeats in the barn, as far as Derek could tell, which meant that he and Peter would likely have to take out five hunters while simultaneously keeping Stiles and his father from getting hurt.  If it were five normal humans, or they didn’t have to account for the hostages, it would be a far fairer fight, but as it was, Derek was mostly hoping they could buy time until the pack arrived, time not filled with the torture of the Stilinskis.  He knew he had to keep himself from getting captured, but he couldn’t leave Stiles in there when he knew Kate was hurting him.

“Derek, stop,” Peter hissed at him, trying to pull him back away from the door they were quickly approaching.  Derek growled quietly at him, trying to shake his hand off.  “We need to plan how we’re going to do this.”

“I am going in there and protecting my friend,” Derek responded bluntly.  “Unless you have a way to make that easier, I don’t need any other plan.”  Peter’s sigh told Derek that he was being far too noble for his uncle’s tastes, but he didn’t care.  This was all his fault, and he was going to rescue Stiles and the Deputy, with or without Peter’s help.

“Split up,” Peter said, just as Derek was preparing himself to edge around the corner to the side of the barn with the door.  “You go in the front door, I’ll come in the back window.  Your arrival will distract the hunters and I should at least be able to get Stiles and Deputy Stilinski free, if not to safety.”  Derek hesitated, but the plan did seem to have at least some merit, certainly more than his idea to just charge in and hope that he could get to Stiles and his father and get them free while somehow keeping them from getting shot.  He studied Peter’s face briefly, looking for any signs that he was playing a trick, then nodded.

“Give me three minutes,” Peter whispered, then disappeared back around the corner.  Derek held himself perfectly still and waited, counting out the seconds in his mind.  At the three minute mark, he slid along the front of the building and gently nudged the door, feeling a rush of relief when it moved silently, showing that it was unlocked.  He was concerned about it, because he couldn’t imagine that Kate was foolish enough to forget to lock the door, but as it made his life and current goals easier, he wasn’t going to complain.  He took a couple of deep breaths, then allowed himself to shift into his Beta form, allowing the improvements to his senses, his strength, and his speed to settle fully.

Derek burst through the door with a loud roar, immediately diving to the left and away from the hunters.  He ended up behind a cart, which was almost immediately riddled with holes as two of the hunters unloaded their machine guns.  He crawled on his belly to a nearby barrel, and risked darting his head out to confirm the location of everyone in the barn.  Kate had four men with her who were focusing on the cart he had hidden behind while she still kept an eye on Stiles and his father.  Derek dragged his eyes away from the Stilinskis before he could do more than catch a glimpse of the bruises riddling their bodies, and quickly looked up at the rafters.  Peter perched above the two captives, his eyes on Kate, waiting for her to be even slightly distracted so that he could make his move.  Derek resolved to give him that distraction and cast about himself to find something he could use to get Kate’s attention.

There was an iron horseshoe lying on the ground a short distance away, so with one final glance around the barrel to ascertain that the hunters still hadn’t guessed where he’d gone, Derek once again flattened himself against the ground and edge over towards the next piece of shelter.  When he fetched up behind the large stack of straw, he was able to stretch out his leg and slowly drag the horseshoe towards him, moving it as silently as possible.  He stopped every few seconds to breathe and listen to the hunters as they argued about who would go check behind the cart to ensure that he was dead.  He was grateful for their disagreement, as it was buying him the time he needed.  As soon as one of them gathered their courage and came back behind the cart, they would realize that he had escaped their gunshots and start to search for him.  It wouldn’t take them long - he was only a short distance away and would be entirely visible as soon as they rounded the edge of the cart.

With the horseshoe in hand, Derek took the risk of peeking around the side of the straw to judge his throw.  He quickly calculated how to pitch it to make the shoe land in amongst a tumble of old farm equipment for the maximum amount of noise and distraction, then ducked back down and situated himself.  With one last long breath, he heaved the horseshoe back over his head and the bales of straw, keeping his head as low as possible.  The clatter was even better than he’d hoped for, and he could hear the jump in the heartbeats of Kate and her cronies.  When he ducked his head out again, he could see that all five of them had turned to look at the machinery.

Peter dropped silently down from the rafters in quick stages, sliding behind the Deputy as soon as he was on the ground.  Luckily, the man was slightly taller and broader than Peter, which gave him just enough space to hide in.  The hunters had wrapped chains in with the ropes, so he couldn’t just slash through them.  He wanted to just pull the handcuff off, but he knew he would likely end up hurting the humans, so he crouched a little and pulled his small case of lockpicks out of his pocket.  He began working on the Deputy’s handcuffs, moving slowly so as not to jingle any of the chains.  His hearing was focused entirely on the hunters, though he could identify Derek’s heartbeat off to his left.

“Who are you?” Stilisnki whispered out of the side of his mouth.  Peter huffed quietly, not sure whether to be amused or disappointed that something like that was deemed to be a relevant question.

“A friend.  Once you’re free, you need to get out of here without drawing their attention.  I don’t have any weapons to give you, so you’d be of more help to be out of the way.”  He could feel the tension in the Deputy’s body, but then the man sighed slightly in assent.  Peter nodded even though Stilinski couldn’t see him, more a confirmation of his own thoughts than anything else.  The first handcuff clicked open and Stilinski flexed his free arm while Peter hurried to unlock the other wrist.  The way the ropes and chains were wound around the handcuffs, it was far easier to unlock both sides than to try and untangle them and leave Stilinski with one hand cuffed.

Within seconds, the Deputy was freed and Peter was on to his son.  The boy was far smaller than his father, so Peter had to tuck himself in as tightly as possible.  He could hear the hunters fumbling around amongst the farm equipment, with Kate barking instructions at them.  Stiles was completely motionless, and if it weren’t for the speed of his heartbeat, Peter would have thought that he was unconscious.  He was grateful for the boy’s composure, as his lack of wiggling made it easier to hide behind his tiny body.  His handcuffs were harder to pick as they were smaller, but Peter set to work on them with a will.  He heard Derek shifting location again, hopefully moving to draw the hunters’ attention again.  Peter didn’t know why none of them were concerned enough to keep an eye on their hostaged, and it twinged a spark of worry in his mind, but he couldn’t think about it at the moment.

Another clangor arose near the door to the barn and Peter heard the hunters flee towards it, none of them seeming to realize that they should keep an eye on anything other than whatever was causing the noise.  Peter worked as quickly as he could, feeling very much like he was overexposed and about to walk himself into a stupid trap.  He couldn’t do much to prevent it, though, so he just focused on getting himself and the stupidly vulnerable humans out of the way.  The pack should be arriving in a matter of minutes and they could rescue Derek if need be.  Peter did truly hope that the need wouldn’t be there, but someone was going to have to sacrifice themselves as a distraction if the pack didn’t arrive before Stiles was free, and it wasn’t going to be Peter.  No, he would be far better (and far safer) protecting the Stilinskis.

Later, Peter would remind himself that he’d noticed the oddity of the hunters’ behaviour, but in the moment it happened, all he could think was that he and the two humans were suddenly in much greater danger than he’d expected.  He freed the boy’s hands then started to tug the two of them back, step by step.  He was so focused on the noises going on in front of him that he didn’t register the heartbeat behind him until a bullet clipped him in his leg, bringing him down so quickly that Stiles tripped over him and fell flat on the ground.

Kate stood above them, her gun nearly dangling from her hand and an expression of cruel delight on her face.  Peter wanted to jump up and confront her, but he could already feel the wolfsbane in the bullet making its way through his veins, slowing him and making it impossible to control the change.  His claws were out and his fangs were itching to come through, so he curled his hands under himself and kept his mouth shut so that Stiles and his father couldn’t see anything.  Kate’s smirk widened as she saw what he was trying to do.

“None of that, now,” she scolded as she rolled him partway with a brutal kick.  Peter heard a gasp from one of the Stilinskis as his claws came into view, but he was already forcing himself up and on the attack, knowing that the secret was out anyway so he might as well take advantage of his natural defenses.  Behind him, he heard a great bellow from Derek, but he was too focussed on getting Kate away from her gun to try and figure out what was going on.  Her smirk was gone, but she was able to hold him off enough to get her gun up and pointed in the direction of the Deputy.  Peter thrust his body in between her and the vulnerable humans just before she pulled the trigger.  He could feel the bullet penetrate his shoulder, but the pain vanished into a haze of red as he lunged at her, his jaws aimed for her throat.


	12. Chapter 12

**TWELVE**

It took Derek’s mother nearly twenty minutes to bring Peter out of his berserk rage, time that Derek spent with Stiles pressed into him, the boy trembling as much from the fear of losing his father as from terror at the beast that had protected the Deputy.  He had seemed unfazed by Derek’s own claws and fangs, and mostly seemed to be reacting to the blood all over Peter rather than his transformation.  The Deputy himself was standing off to the side, speaking to Derek’s father in what seemed to be calm tones.  Only the dilation of his pupils and the scent of him gave away the fact that he was still on edge and fearful, and unlike his son his fear seemed to extend to the entire family.  Still, he wasn’t running and screaming, and he was clearly trying to treat them all like regular humans, so he was doing relatively well.

Talia and Peter emerged from the barn, both looking shaken but otherwise fine, with Peter mostly cleaned of blood.  They joined Deputy Stilinski and Liam, and Derek watched in interest as the Deputy slid over to avoid standing next to Peter but still reached out to shake his hand.  Sharpening his hearing, Derek listened in as the man thanked his uncle and joked that luckily the state of the bodies meant that nobody would have to be prosecuted.  The Deputy couldn’t smell the wave of relief that rolled off the three werewolves, but he seemed to be able to read it in their body language judging by the way that he readjusted his own stance.  It was enough for Derek, and he turned his attention back to Stiles, whose breathing was thankfully staying normal.

“Are you doing OK?” Derek murmured, knowing that the perception of privacy was likely to encourage Stiles to open up.

“As long as seeing you with claws and fangs and your uncle tearing people apart wasn’t just a figment of my imagination, I think I’m at least not crazy.”  Stiles’ voice was strained, but he pulled away enough to give Derek a shaky sign.

“You’re not crazy,” Derek confirmed, then ushered Stiles over to his mother for the explanations of werewolves.  By the end of her lecture, Stiles actually seemed calmer than his father, as though he could accept the logic of werewolves and magic once it was explained as simply being real.  Derek supposed that was one of the advantages of being young and not yet having a strong and set view of the world.  It took the Deputy a few weeks to fully accept what he had been told, but by the end of the month, he and Stiles were coming by two or three times a week for dinner and a question session about the possible supernatural background for any case that might be stumping Deputy Stilinski.  Stiles hung on every word of those conversations, fascinated by every aspect of their world.

When the old Sheriff stepped down, Derek’s family threw their support behind Deputy Stilinski, and with them running his campaign, he was soon named Sheriff.  They had never felt it safe to include any of the previous Sheriffs in their secret, but the advantage of having John (as he insisted they call him) in the loop was enough to have them interested in being further involved.  Derek started hanging around the Sheriff’s station more and more often, especially when Stiles graduated to middle school and started spending his afternoons there as well.  By the time Derek was ready to graduate, it wasn’t even a question what he would be doing with his life.  He quite willingly enrolled in the closest community college and started working on a degree in criminal justice, with an eye to getting into the academy located a few hours away.  The Sheriff told him that he didn’t need to get all that education, but Derek knew that if he ever wanted to take over as Sheriff, it could only help.

The four years he spent in college flew by, and before he knew it he was saying goodbye to his family and the Stilinskis and packing up his car for his move to the academy.  He would be close enough to come home most weekends, but he still felt like the distance from his pack would be a challenge.  It was only the reassurance that he would be given clothing to take with him every time he visited that allowed him to even leave.  He suffered through the first few days and was on the verge of leaving and just taking the job the Sheriff had offered him when Stiles called him out of the blue.  He was talked through the process of setting up Skype on his laptop, and when he finally signed in to see an invitation already waiting from Stiles, he felt his mood improve just a little bit.  The rest of his family quickly followed and he soon forgot the worst of his loneliness, simply opening up Skype whenever he missed home and chatting with whomever was on.

His actual graduation from the academy was a bit anti-climatic, but the party that was thrown in his honor more than made up for it.  Even Sheriff Stilinski let down his hair a bit, though he still kept Stiles and his friends from drinking, a fact that Stiles whined about to Derek for several minutes before the group of teenagers dragged him away.  All five of them knew about Derek’s family, and much to his surprise, Kate’s niece was part of the group.  He’d known that her brother, Chris, and his family had moved to the area shortly after her death to negotiate peace with the pack, but it seemed that in the past year, young Allison and Scott had fallen in love.  With both Stiles and Allison knowing the truth, it had been deemed reasonable to bring the rest of their small group into the fold.  Stiles’ friend Erica was already being discussed as a potential addition to the pack, and it seemed likely that her boyfriend would follow her.  The last member of the group, Isaac Lahey, was more of a question, preferring to follow Scott’s lead in hesitating about the offer.  Derek had heard his sad story second-hand from both Stiles and his family, and hoped that Isaac could learn to trust them and would find being a part of the pack healing, even if he joined as a human.

Derek enjoyed the party, but as it began to wind down, he found himself wanting to be alone.  Rather than disturb everyone by letting them know, he slipped outside to the back porch, where he draped himself over the railing with a sigh.  He was happy to be back home and excited about starting work, but he still felt like there was something missing.

The creak of the screen door alerted him to the fact that someone was coming out to join him, and the rhythm of the heartbeat told him why he hadn’t noticed the sounds of an approaching person.  He didn’t turn around or even stand upright, but he slid over just enough so that Stiles could come lean next to him.

“Great party,” Stiles said casually, letting himself slide along the railing until he was pressed against Derek’s side.

“Yeah,” Derek acknowledged.  “I’m glad everyone could make it.”

“Well, they all missed you,” Stiles told him, then hesitated.  “I missed you.  I know we talked on Skype all the time, but it...”  He seemed lost for words, so Derek said what he knew what Stiles was thinking.

“It wasn’t the same.  I know.”  He tentatively raised one hand and put it on the back of Stiles’ neck.  When Stiles’ only reaction was to lean even further into his space, Derek slid his hand along until his arm was draped across Stiles’ shoulders, holding his slender body against Derek’s bulkier one.  They stood together like that, staring at the stars, until Talia came out to fetch them.

As Derek was waving goodbye to Stiles and the Sheriff, he felt an odd sensation.  Much later, he would identify it as one chapter of his life closing and another opening, all because he had finally learned to forgive himself.

  
THE END


End file.
